I recently listened to a client who went through one of my Cute Honey processes talk about the isolation that she feels in running her business. She is a director of a company and has a couple of business partners, yet she is the main force behind the business. She and her partners are married with small children and are still holding down a part-time job each, like many other women in my acquaintance.

The problems she encounters are not just business related but a cover a lot of areas in her life. She feels

• that she is expected to be fully responsible for the overall care of her children, that her husbands attitude is that it is his place to go out to work and if she wants to work then it is up to her to arrange the childcare to be able to do so.
• that her husband doesn’t understand or fully support her business endeavours as much as he could because he can’t see the financial return yet.
• that he also expects her to be fully responsible for the running of the household and its maintenance despite having a job, a business and small children to look after.
  
• that her business partners don’t participate as well as they could do in the growth of the business and sometimes ridicule/block or ignore her efforts to do so.
• that her friends none of whom own their own business even care about or ask how she is doing and make assumptions that because she is a business owner that she is rolling in money.
• that her children often miss out on quality time with her and that leads to feeling even more guilty than she already does.
• that there really are not enough hours in the day to get done all the things that need to be done to keep the business, home and household running.
  
• so very tired, rushed, overwhelmed, lonely and sometimes, on days like the other day, she feels like throwing in the towel and walking away from it all.

But she doesn’t!!

What keeps her from just quitting is

• she has always wanted to have a business doing exactly what she is doing, it’s a dream come true.
  
• a huge belief that she is doing something worthwhile.
• the ability to pick up the phone and ask for help from me her business coach, trainer and mentor, so that she gets the support that she requires to stick with it when she is feeling self doubt.
• the fact that she knows deep down that this business is something that she absolutely loves doing and that she would regret it if she just quit without giving it the attention it deserves to grow.
• the support she gets from the other women in business she now networks with on a regular basis, who also “get” where she is coming from.
• the ideas and plans she has for the future of her business that just wouldn’t happen if she quit.
• the thought of giving up her part time job next year to concentrate more on building her business
• the brilliant contacts she has made since setting up in business
• the sense of satisfaction she gets from seeing a very pleased client who says they can’t thank her enough for what she has done for them, even though for her that is standard practice.
• the fact that she is aware that a new business is often like a new baby that doesn’t sleep.

Most of the time she loves it with all her heart, it’s small and defenceless and needs her to care and nurture it. The sleepless nights will pass as it grows, but for now it’s tiring, exhausting really. When it grows it won’t take up the same amount of her time and if her business partners see the dividends that growth brings at least one them will change their attitude and take on more responsibility.

What keeps her from quitting the most is she set out definite goals for her business and has realised that she has achieved nearly all of them much quicker than she expected and now has bigger goals that she knows are achieveable.

All she has to do is stick with it. As a Mumpreneur or a mum business owner what would you do and why? If she came to you for advice how would you advise her?